


Of Names

by esteoflorien



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:23:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1021916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteoflorien/pseuds/esteoflorien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not long into her sabbatical, Admiral Janeway receives a special visitor at home in Indiana. (Post-Endgame).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Names

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PerilouslyClose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerilouslyClose/gifts).



_Kathryn_. It is a name she hears only rarely, if ever. Now she answers to  _Admiral_ , the title she always wanted, from childhood, when she looked up at her father and heard his greatness reflected in his rank. She knew that adjusting to life back home, back in the relative safety and calm of the Alpha Quadrant, would be difficult, but she had never given a thought to nomenclature until now. 

She had cause to think often on names during her tenure at the helm of Voyager.

_Despite Starfleet protocol, I don’t like being addressed as ‘sir.’_

_Her name was Annika Hansen._

_Oh Kathy, don’t be such a prude._

_Three years ago, I didn’t even know your name. Today, I can’t imagine a day without you_.

_Arachnia_. That one still makes her smile.

_You’re not alone, Kathryn_.

_Kathryn._ How long has it been since they last spoke?

She is in Indiana now, at the home she never dared to dream of and now that they are all home, the Voyager family is scattered. Tuvok’s home, of course, is far away; she knew that. But she had never considered the magnitude of some three thousand miles. Two years ago, she’d have laughed at the thought of three thousand miles, hardly an expanse for a woman in command of a starship designed for speed. But now, with him in California, and her in Indiana, it seems terribly far.

~

His arrival catches her by surprise. “You won’t believe what I got, the other day,” he says, apropos of nothing, pushing past her into the house. “Admiral.”

So she is  _Admiral_  even to him.

“Paris sent this over. I could have just sent it to you, too, but – “ he trails off.

In his unspoken words, she dares to hope.

He fiddles with something before turning back to her. He smiles, his face suffused with amusement and warmth. “Just watch this.”

She rolls her eyes; it’s expected. “I suppose I can’t even offer you a drink,” she says, making a vague attempt at hospitality she knows he’ll decline anyway.

What Paris has sent him, she discovers, is the story of Captain Proton. She hadn’t known a copy was made, but of course one was: of course Voyager would ensure that something as out of the ordinary as a malfunctioning holodeck would be recorded.

“They look so young,” Chakotay is saying. She shakes her head and looks down. So they do look young.

“It’s hard to imagine them as parents, looking at them here.”

“We look young,” Chakotay laughs. “I find it difficult to believe this wasn’t so very long ago.”

“I feel old,” she offers, mostly because it’s what she thinks he wants to hear. She doesn’t feel old – at least, she doesn’t feel old now, with him. How could she feel old with him, when he is the one who made her feel alive?

“You don’t look it,” Chakotay says absently. She wishes there was more conviction in his voice. “Now pay attention, we’re getting to the good part.”

She watches the screen; there goes Chaotica; she knows what happens after he turns his attention to the door, but even her own appearance catches her by surprise.

He laughs. “Look at you!” If he was any other man, she rather thinks he might have whistled.

She allows herself a small smile, watching herself vamp her way around Chaotica’s imaginary little room. “I suppose I did justice to the role,” she says.

“You did at that,” Chakotay says. “My favorite part is coming up.”

“Oh?” she asks. In retrospect, she can’t believe she actually pranced about the ship in that getup.

Chakotay laughs. “Oh yes. Look at you now! Rolling your eyes at him. And  _this_ ,” he exclaims, triumphantly, “is the best moment.” The screen freezes on the image of her caught in Chaotica’s holographic restraints.

“That’s the best part,” she repeats, dubiously.

He laughs. “Look at the shock on your face! I know Paris warned you about that. It’s just funny,” he says, the wild amusement leaving his voice. “Funny, you know, because you clearly had no patience for the hologram before.”

His face falls, and she immediately regrets the change in her mood. He was so happy, and her annoyance went and ruined it.

“You’re right,” she says, after a moment, and he brightens. “I had forgotten about that aspect. But I think I acquitted myself fairly well, all things considered.”

Chakotay quirks a smile in her direction. “Spider pheromones, eh?”

“One shouldn’t underestimate a lady’s persuasive powers.”

He laughs, then. “That was cheating.”

“That was using the means at my disposal to achieve my goal.”

He shrugs. “You’re the Queen,” he says, raising his hands in surrender, and resumes playback. “Queen Arachnia,” he murmurs, once it finishes.

“You have to admit it has a certain ring.”

“B’Elanna thought we ought to adopt it.” (She hasn’t gotten used to him calling her  _B’Elanna_  like that. She always expects  _Torres_.) “’Bridge to Arachnia; come in, your royal highness.”’ He laughs. “Then we decided you probably wouldn’t appreciate it, o Captain, my Captain.”

“Most likely not,” she muses.  _O Captain, my captain_  indeed; against her best efforts, she savors it. “But I might have gone along with it.”

“You made a beautiful Queen,” he says, stepping away from her and sitting heavily on the sofa. She perches on the armrest beside him.

“Thank you.”

“Do you ever wonder if things would have been different, if we’d met a different way?”

She has a very good idea of how things would have been different; she knows that he understands her silence.

“You know, when I saw this after the fact,” he continues, “I regretted not being a part of it.” He laughs. “At one point, I even wanted to be Chaotica himself.”

“Why’s that?” she asks.

“Look at the way you look at him,” he says, gesturing vaguely at the blank screen. “Who wouldn’t want to be him?” He sits up straight. “I’m sorry, that was out line.”

“We’re friends, Chakotay,” she says. “We’re not on Voyager. There isn’t an ‘out of line’ anymore, not between friends.”

“Well then.”

So like him, she thinks, not to repeat it. “I think I’d have liked it if you were.”

He looks up at her; strange, to be looking down at him. “Would you really? That surprises me.”

“It shouldn’t,” she says.

“Kathryn,” he says, his voice deep and warm and everything she’s missed.  _Kathryn._

“Yes,” she says, needlessly, and kisses him.


End file.
